'70s Redux: Biden Takes US Back to Runaway Inflation, Embarrassing Embassy Troop Withdrawal
President Joe Biden appears intent on taking the United States back to the malaise decade of the 1970s when he first became a U.S. senator.
Whether he’s feeling nostalgic or he’s just plain incompetent, such a return is not good for the country.
The U.S. was ending its then-longest war, the Vietnam War, in ignominious fashion with a rooftop evacuation of U.S. personnel and refugees from our embassy in Saigon in April 1975.
Joe Biden has been in Washington for so long that as a US senator, he voted for the policies that led to the fall of Saigon. pic.twitter.com/RTXgSCZ3TK
— J Michael Waller (@JMichaelWaller) August 12, 2021
That same year, the country experienced a 9.1 percent inflation rate. That rate would hit double digits by the end of the decade, coupled with low economic growth leading to good old stagflation.
Inflation was fueled by the Federal Reserve’s easy-money policies. There was too much money chasing too few goods, much like now.
What’s old is new again under Biden.
Much like Vietnam in the mid-1970s, the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating rapidly, as the U.S.-backed central government cedes more and more ground to the Taliban.
On Thursday, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby announced the United States will deploy 3,000 troops to evacuate our embassy personnel from Kabul, the nation’s capital.
Kirby said an additional 1,000 troops will be sent to Qatar to help process Afghans fleeing the country with special immigrant visas.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. will reduce staff at the embassy in Kabul and send about 3,000 troops temporarily to the airport to assist as the Taliban made rapid gains in Afghanistan https://t.co/H0lTgD8IzH pic.twitter.com/TZ9IJbHoT0
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 12, 2021
Further, an infantry brigade combat team from the 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina, will also deploy to Kuwait as a standby reserve force.
“We’ll see what the need is after that,” Kirby added, according to USA Today.
Biden announced in April that the U.S. military would be withdrawing from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks next month.
In early 2020, the Trump administration entered into negotiations with the Taliban to leave Afghanistan based on certain conditions being met.
Former President Donald Trump criticized Biden on Thursday for not following this blueprint.
“[I]f I were now President, the world would find that our withdrawal from Afghanistan would be a conditions-based withdrawal,” he said in a statement.
“I personally had discussions with top Taliban leaders whereby they understood what they are doing now would not have been acceptable. It would have been a much different and much more successful withdrawal, and the Taliban understood that better than anyone. What is going on now is not acceptable. It should have been done much better,” Trump added.
Former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reiterated on Fox News that the Biden administration failed in the proper execution of the withdrawal.
There is a clear difference from the way our Administration dealt with American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and the way the Biden Administration is handling it. https://t.co/VrdIuQSIlh
— Mike Pompeo (@mikepompeo) August 12, 2021
“Looks like this was poor planning, poor leadership, and the model of deterrence that the Trump administration had in place as we prepared to bring the soldiers, sailors, Marines — everybody who’s on the ground there — home, looks like they’ve not been able to execute this,” Pompeo said.
Pompeo contended that no American troops were killed by the Taliban after the previous administration entered into negotiations to withdraw because Trump made clear to their lead negotiator there would be grave consequences if any of our forces suffered harm.
Besides the Vietnam War flashback, Biden is also foisting the failed economic policies of the 1970s on America too.
Inflation hit an annual 5.4 percent rate in July, matching a 20-year high from the previous month, MarketWatch reported.
Meanwhile, the producer price index reached its highest level on record last month as the year-over-year cost to produce goods grew at a pace of 7.8 percent.
What is a major factor leading to the spike in prices for American consumers and producers? Energy costs. Gasoline prices are up nearly a dollar a gallon since last year.
The cost of energy also impacts all levels of the economy.
When Biden ended construction of the Keystone XL pipeline and oil development on federal lands, it sent a signal to the market that the U.S. — the world’s top producer — will be providing less in the future.
Less supply coupled with higher demand equals rising prices. Pretty basic stuff.
In another echo from the 1970s, the Biden administration on Wednesday called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil production to ease rising gasoline prices.
Under Trump, we were energy independent for the first time in decades.
Biden is resurrecting the worst policies of the ’70s.
A silver lining is the 1980s followed, which saw a resurgence of the American economy, military and spirit under Republican Ronald Reagan.
Here’s hoping that history repeats itself and Biden’s foray into the decade of malaise is short-lived.
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